Living His WordSýnishorn

The thing about horses and mules is that you can’t depend upon them to automatically go where you want them to go. You have to control them for that to happen. You have to externally control them. You have to put bits in their mouths and bridles over their heads and lead them where you want them to go. This is necessary, of course, because they are not human and do not have the faculty of rational understanding.

Our verse for today tells us that we should not be like horses and mules. We should not have to be externally manipulated in order to go in the way we should go. Instead, we should accept instruction and counsel, internalize it, understand it, and go forth in life without the necessity of external constraints.

There is some debate as to whether the speaker in verses 8 and 9 is God or King David. Whether the instruction and counsel spoken of here comes directly from God or is mediated by God through David, the idea is the same. Divine guidance is available and if we willingly accept it, then God will not find it necessary to control us with external constraints and situations that we may not find all that pleasant.

So keep your eyes and ears ready for the guidance that will surely come from the God who has a loving eye fixed on us because He cares about the direction of our lives.